Looking at the Yahoo headlines today and I saw this:

Student Accused of Creating Fake Airline

BOSTON - A college freshman created a fake airline that offered bargain-priced tickets on flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles, authorities said Thursday.

Luke Thompson, of Yardley, Pa., incorporated Mainline Airways in Pennsylvania, established a business address in the Boston suburb of Wellesley and set up an elaborate Web site, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly.

Thompson, who attends Babson College in Wellesley, offered fares as low as $89 one way between Los Angeles and Honolulu, Reilly said. Flights were to begin July 3, but Mainline had neither planes, crews nor the required permits and approvals as recently as a few weeks ago.

OK, it's wrong, and he shouldn't have done it, but there's just a little bit of admiration for the kid. I mean, if you're going to be a crook, why start small? It's kind of the same concept as Spielberg's movie "Catch Me If You Can."

Mr. Thompson maintains that he had every intention of doing this operation, and sayd that they had been contacting several airlines to negotiate for service.

[I bet he has some swampland in Florida to sell too.]

Recently I wrote about the retirement of the Concorde. Air France offically retired their fleet in May; British Airways will fly until October.

But they'll always have a place in aviation history - and apparently in Virginia. Air France has donated one of its planes to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. It flew into Dulles airport in suburban Virginia yesterday to take up residence at the museum's new Air and Space museum adjacent to the airport.

[I wonder if they'll have to call it "Air Freedom?"]

Here's an interesting "blast from the past." I received an e-mail from an old friend, Lori, that I went to elementary, junior high and high school with. She is engaged to a guy - Paul G - that was in our sixth grade class with us!

But what makes it even more intriguing is that when we were graduating from sixth grade, we had a yearbook of sorts. No photos, but each person had a section where they would put their nickname, ambition, favorite food, favorite thing, etc. Lori asked if I still had my copy of the yearbook, which I did. When I looked up her name in the yearbook, under "Favorite Thing" it said:

Paul G

[Ain't life grand?]

Quote du jour:

"It's a small world but I wouldn't want to paint it."

-- Steven Wright (1955 - ____) US comedian

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